Little Brothers
by weatherbyp
Summary: Molly takes the children to a museum for Percy's 10th birthday. Arthur is working and so she must handle the children on her own. Wrangling that many children is no walk in the park and Percy is lost. Molly sends too-cool-for-school Bill to go find him. Brotherly fluff ensues. Muggle!verse AU. One shot.


Prompt, "Lost in a museum" from fanficy-prompts on tumblr.

Author note: Harry Potter and all associated characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Also, I am American, I try to do justice to the more obvious mum/mom soccer/football but there will still be Americanisms. Apologies in advance.

* * *

Bill sighed. This was not how he had planned to spend his afternoon. Stuck in a boring museum, on a Saturday no less, trailing after twins. He was in charge of making sure they didn't run off or break some 5,000-year-old vase or ancient artifact. Only the blessed air conditioning on the hottest day of the year made it bearable. The last few days had been hot and muggy.

When Molly Weasley had announced that they would be taking a trip to a large museum for Percy's tenth birthday, Percy had lit up in excitement as his siblings groaned around the breakfast table. The twins slouched dramatically, complaining as Charlie protested that he was intending to go to the creek with his friends. His mother had replied tersely, while piling hash browns onto his plate, that he would be doing no such thing. Especially since he was still as red as a lobster from the day before. Bill's hand had instinctively gone to itch the peeling skin on his neck.

"But Percy's birthday won't be for another three days, do we have to go today? I was going to hang out wi—" Bill had started to ask.

"We _are going_ to the museum in forty-five minutes so I expect you all dressed and ready and in the car by that time." Molly interrupted in a tone that said this was not up for debate.

Thirty minutes later, Percy was sitting in the front seat (His punctuality not completely necessary as the front passenger seat was always reserved for the birthday child in question.) in his least-faded navy oxford shirt and a pair of khaki shorts, sitting up straight as not to get too many wrinkles.

Fifty-five minutes later Bill and Charlie sauntered out, Charlie tossing his football in the air, it's black and white colors blurring. Bill adjusting his leather jacket, wiping sweat from his forehead.

Ann an hour and twenty minutes after the original announcement, Molly was finally able to wrangle the twins, Ron and Ginny out to the car as well. Ron dutifully leading Ginny, holding her hand while she gripped her new doll in the other.

Once they were all settled, Molly heaved a sigh as she sat down in the seat next to Percy. She turned the key and the engine sputtered, refusing to start. Molly sat for a moment, gathering all her patience, feeling the six pairs of eyes that were on her.

"I gue—"

"Hush, William."

She turned the key again, praying to God Almighty and whoever else would listen. She sighed in relief as it started. She immediately turned on the air conditioning, thankful for the cool air on her flushed face.

"Now see? Everything is fine."

* * *

Everything was not fine.

Bill had dragged one twin, the other thrown over his shoulder, both kicking and screaming back to his waiting family.

The trip had gone peacefully as they traversed through the first few exhibits, led by twins as they scampered from one exhibit to another, skipping one here and there. Molly had respectfully 'oohed' and 'awed' over the different items in a failed attempt to get the little ones interested in the respective items. She had to admit though, it was difficult to get too excited about a two-hundred-year-old clerical note. But she knew Percy loved this sort of thing, so she endured. She looked back at him, despite loving museums and history, he seemed sullen and pouty. A far cry from the excitement he showed at the breakfast table.

Things had gone smoothly this way, until they walked into the dinosaur exhibit.

Charlie had stopped, his brown eyes transfixed on the large skeleton positioned in the air. He hurried over to it, much faster and excited than his usual, affected thirteen-year-old gait, to examine the bones more closely and read the plaque underneath it. He then would not leave the exhibit until he had carefully examined every single plaque and skeleton, some more than once. It was at this point that he realized there were two other exhibits that they had missed entirely and refused to go on until they went back to see those as well.

Up until this point, the twins had behaved well, driven by a promise of ice cream after the museum. This promise also being the reason they were going through the exhibits so quickly in the first place. They did not want to return to the two other exhibits. They had already spent forty-five extemely boring minutes dramatically huffing and playing games like 'tug at Ginny's skirt' and 'tease Ron that there are spiders on his shoelaces'.

The idea that they would be going back to two other exhibits was too much, but Charlie would not resign.

"I'm not going until we see the other exhibits!"

Bill set one twin down a few feet away from where his brother and mother were arguing. Bill looked around, his face flushed, embarrassed that people were beginning to stare. Not that they weren't before, a pack of seven red-heads roaming around was enough to gather anyone's attention, but now they were staring for an entirely different reason. Bill instructed the twins to stay put in his most mum-like voice he could manage, and walked up to Charlie.

"C'mon, Charlie, we've already spent more time in this area than all the others combined. Let's go. Don't you want to get ice cream?"

Charlie jut out his chin stubbornly, his football tucked under one arm, the other hand on his waist.

"But I haven't seen the Triassic or Jurassic periods yet!"

Bill screws up his eyes in confusion.

"What?"

"The—"

"I don't care Charlie, stop with the nerd talk and let's go. You're upsetting the twins."

"It's not nerd talk, Bill! And you're the one who always says I should study harder in school!"

"Yeah, in school, not when we could be eating ice cream! So, let's go."

Bill punctuates the last sentence with a rough pat on Charlie's shoulder. Charlie stiffens at the pain of the still fresh sunburn, and gives his older brother a squinting glare tinged with betrayal.

"Fine. Whatever."

Charlie sulks and Bill sighs in relief. Then realizes he's done so and readjusts his leather jacket and rustles the red hair falling around his ears, checking to see if any girls are looking. Molly tries to settle the others, standing back to do the usual routine of counting each child before going from one place to another.

"Where's Percy?"

Charlie and Bill look around, the curly-headed bookworm nowhere to be seen. Molly turns back to Bill.

"Bill will you please go back and look for Percy. I can't believe he wandered off, that is not like him."

Bill's shoulders sag as he lets out an agitated huff rivaling the annoyed huffs of his eight-year-old twin brothers.

"Can't we just go, mum? The ice cream shop is only down the road, he knows where it is."

Molly gives him a seething glare.

"Charlie, watch your siblings. I need to speak with your brother."

Charlie sends Bill a pitying look while crossing himself.

"Godspeed." He whispers in phony reverence before walking past Molly to the younger siblings. Molly takes Bill's arm and leads him away a few feet. They stop and he stares sullenly at the chipped tiles on the floor. Molly crosses her arms, trying to be the imposing mother. A difficult task when the child in question already towers over you at fifteen.

"William Weasley, you are the oldest and I expect you to act like it! When I ask you to go find your little brother, you do it."

"It's not fair! I had plans today that didn't involve being dragged into a dusty museum. And besides, it's not even his birthday!"

Molly sighs, frowning, agitated. She looks at him and then looks away her cheeks tinged red.

"I'm sorry, Bill. I know you had plans but we _had_ to do this today."

He glares at her.

"Why today? We could have easily come here Sunday or any other day."

She avoids his gaze, lowing her voice to a whisper.

"We can't _afford_ to celebrate his birthday this year, Bill. That is why we came to _this_ museum on _this_ day, an _hour_ away from our home. First Saturdays of each moth, the admissions are free. We spent a little too much on Ginny's birthday last week, and then with the unexpected transmission repair for the Ford Anglia..."

She trails off, trying to catch her breath, blinking rapidly. She wipes her eyes before giving her oldest son a pleading look.

"Please, Bill. I need your help."

Bill's anger drains watching her. His shoulder sag, with guilt.

"I'm sorry mum. I'll go find him."

Molly covers up her desperation with a bright smile, but for the first time, Bill sees past it.

"Thank you, Bill."

She touches his shoulder affectionately before returning to the group, announcing that they will now be going to get ice cream and 'if you dont stop touching that, George Weasley, you will not be getting any'.

"Ice cream!" The twins cheer abandoning the plaque they were trying to remove. Ron begins to bounce on his toes. The children chatter excitedly as Molly herds them outside. Bill walks for a few minutes before he hears running feet from behind him. He turns as Charlie nears him, football nowhere to be seen. He grins at Bill, panting.

"Mum said I could come look for Percy with you."

Bill frowns, confused and then smiles.

"You just want to go to those dinosaur exhibits when we go back."

Charlie tries to put on a blank face, looking directly at Bill.

"No…" Charlie's voice is slightly higher as he lies through his teeth.

"But now that you mention it…."

Bill can't help but laugh.

* * *

Bill and Charlie wander through several exhibits, but no Percy to be found. When they enter the next one, Bill hears a movie being played somewhere. He looks around, the walls have been painted with numbers and there are grayed pictures and graphs and plaques.

"Looks like one of my maths nightmares where I'm in my underwear and riding a horse and I have to take a test and my pencil doesn't work."

Bill turns to look at him with a smirk.

"That's…vivid. You always have dreams like that?"

Charlie shrugs, looking around the room.

"Once I had a dream that the Ford Anglia could fly."

Bill shakes his head, chuckling.

"You go check that way, I'm gonna check this room over here."

The two split and Bill walks to the room and pokes his head inside. There is a movie playing on a large screen that takes up the entire wall, a disembodied voice talks about something called game theory as images flash on screen. In front of the screen are a set of three long benches. On the first bench sits Percy. Seeing the mop of red curls, and thinking of what his mother said, Bill can't help but feel guilty. He walks quietly up to sit by Percy, who notices him but makes no comment and turns his attention back to the movie playing.

Bill looks down at his little brother and thinks on what his mother said. He thinks about how he never noticed how tired she looked, even when she smiled. Percy's knees and shins have bruises, not unlike his siblings. But these bruises aren't from football or roughhousing but from stumbling over things while his nose was in a book and his brain miles away. He absentmindedly wonders why Percy is the only one with curls. Bill thinks about how Charlie's face lit up at the sight of the dinosaur bones and how determined he was to stay.

The movie ends and the room goes dark save a faint blue hue from the screen.

"I'm sorry we went through the exhibits so fast."

Percy doesn't say anything but Bill hears him sigh.

"It's okay."

The screen lights up and the movie that was playing previously, starts again. Charlie appears at the door.

"There you guys are. Mum just called on the emergency cellphone. She wants to know if we found Percy. She says we need to go home so the littles can nap."

Bill thinks for a moment.

"Ask her if we can stay and dad can pick us up later, so we can go back through the other exhibits. I think we missed some things."

Charlies eyes widen, he speaks in a small voice.

"Does that mean we get to go see the dinosaur exhibits too?"

Bill grins.

"Yeah."

Charlie dances where he stands and then rushes out of the room, calling behind him.

"I'll call her right now and ask!"

Percy looks up at Bill frowning.

"Why did you do that?"

"What do you mean? Do what? Ask to stay?"

"Yeah. You guys moaned the entire way through the museum. Why would you ask to stay?"

"Yeah, we did. We were acting like a bunch of gits, sorry."

Bill flushes, looking away looked, then turns back to his brother. He smiles and pulled Percy into a one-armed hug.

"And I asked if we could stay because I owe it to you, to have a good birthday, Perce."

Percy looks surprised for a moment, but then grins.

* * *

"So, what did mom say to you before?" Charlie asks as they walk out of the exhibit. He and Percy both look up at Bill expectantly. Bill looks down at them. Charlie only two years younger but still much shorter, he has dirt on his face and he's wearing the same tee shirt that he wore yesterday. Percy's mop of curls need to be detangled and as mature as he liked to think he is, his glasses are smudged and his shirt wrinkled, the sleeves rolled up. Bill hesitates only a moment before looking away and replying airily.

"She said if you don't get your marks up she might take away your football for a while."

Charlie blanches.

"But I did, they're better now! She didn't say that!"

Bill turns to give Charlie and impish smile.

"How do you know?"

Charlie stops as the other two continue walking.

"She didn't say that! Bill! Billll!"

Bill chuckles as Charlie rushes to catch up with them. An exhibition catches his eye and he stops. Percy looks around him.

"What's that?" Percy asks.

"It looks like an ancient Egypt exhibit." Bill starts to walk towards it. "Let's go check it out."

Percy follows and Charlie calls out after them as they walk to the exhibit.

"Don't forget, we still have to see my dinosaur exhibits!"

"Yeah, yeah. Keep your pants on. I swear, little brothers."


End file.
